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AEW/Lee South
AEW celebrated its fifth anniversary with the annual Double or Nothing pay-per-view in Las Vegas, Nevada. The show was headlined by the triple main event of Mercedes Mone defeating Willow Nightingale for the AEW TBS Championship, Swerve Strickland retaining the AEW World Championship over Christian Cage, and third-ever Anarchy in the Arena match between Team AEW and The Elite. Now that the dust has settled, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has broken down the financial side of the event.
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Meltzer was reportedly told by AEW that the paid number of fans in the building was 7,500, with an excess of 9,000 people in the building at bell-time. However, it was later reported by Pollstar that a total of 9,099 paid fans were in attendance, generating a gate of $582,204, contradicting the initial gate number Meltzer received of just under $800,000. What Meltzer finds strange about these figures is that the average ticket price would come to $63.99 if the Pollstar numbers are to be believed, which are much lower than what the actual ticket prices were for the show. The 2023 event also generated a similar gate in the T-Mobile Arena, but ticket prices were reportedly much higher.
The number crunching continued when Meltzer discussed the May 25 "AEW Collision" that took place the night before Double or Nothing. The show reportedly drew a gate of $112,298 from 3,944 fans, averaging at around $28.47 per ticket, which Meltzer feels is impossible as AEW ticket prices are much higher than that, even on show day. Meltzer feels that there may have only been around 2,500 fans in attendance for "AEW Collision," with the rest being papered up to the near 4,000 mark, despite the fact that Pollstar are meant to use paid attendance figures.
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Details on AEW's Salary Bill Have Also Been Revealed
AEW/Lee South
AEW's Mike Mansury filed forms for tax credits in Nevada listing the expresses for both the May 25 "AEW Collision" and the Double or Nothing pay-per-view in the weeks following the company's trip to Vegas, and one thing has stood out more than most to Meltzer; AEW's wage bill. The forms listed AEW paying $2 Million in salaries over Double or Nothing weekend, which included all talent and other workers employed by the company. When put into a bigger perspective, Meltzer noted that the annual number AEW pays for salaries is in the region of $104 Million per year, given that AEW usually works with annual deals. While this is not confirmed due to the roster having varying salaries, Meltzer admits that the figure is a lot higher than what he initially thought, meaning that AEW's upcoming media rights deal would need to be worth at least $125 Million per year just to guarantee the chance of breaking even.
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Overall, Meltzer believes that the weekend as a whole was profitable for AEW, if only slightly. The total expenses reportedly came in at $3,868,200, which includes the aforementioned $2 Million on salaries, as well as $400,000 for operations and technical support crew, $250,000 in hotel expenses, and $150,000 on both broadcast production and talent airfare as the biggest expenses.
AEW were reportedly asked for just 10% of their expenses in taxes as well, meaning that combining the $3 Million the company got from the pay-per-view, $500,000 from TNT for "AEW Collision," $150,000 in merchandise sales, and the live gate, AEW have the rare distinction, unlike many tourists who visit, of being able to say that they left Las Vegas with more money than when they arrived.
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